PORTLAND — Pulitze Prize-winning columnist Ellen Goodman will be the guest speaker at the University of Southern Maine’s 129th Commencement on Sunday, May 16, at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

Goodman, a longtime summer resident of Chebeague Island, is perhaps most well-known for her columns in the Boston Globe, which also appear in more than 300 other newspapers nationwide. She won a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary in 1980 and the Ernie Pyle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in 2008.

Goodman is the author two books: “Paper Trail: Common Sense in Uncommon Times” and ” I Know Just What You Mean: The Power of Friendship in Women’s Lives.”